The Beautiful Panic.com

Why do some people have to be the assholes? Is it to keep the balance? Ying and Yang? Maybe all we’re trying to do is complete the picture?

The final image of what happened on the Halloween 2020 broadcast of UFC Fight night will be the sanitized one. The narrative that the multi-billion dollar institution has packaged for mass consumption. Is that narrative real? Of course it is. But it is the cynic, nay, the cold hearted asshole who brings with him that which all beauty hates: Time.

It is the cynics job to remind us that the reason why you love something, is not only because of the wholesome, bright, splendor. It is also the ugly imperfections that live within it. The person who walked into the original Amber room in Russia; not only loved it for the billions worth of gold and gemstones covering every square centimeter of the room. Whether they knew it or not; they loved the tiny cracks, the slight imperfections. They loved the fact that people had lost blood, fingers, limbs, life. The beauty lives within this ugliness.

Time is ugly. The moments it gives us are beautiful. I think that narrative is important. The faces of Anderson Silva’s sons in that cage told what will surely be a forgotten side of the story. The ugly complexity of time. I’m sure the MMA intellectuals like Luke Thomas or Chuck Mindenhall already have a time share where I conclude this. Let’s go for it anyway.

Uriah Hall might be the greatest middleweight (not named Anderson Silva) of all time. His early brush with monumental expectations, and the subsequent stresses and setbacks it brought are the ugly little details. In this fight, he walked in as the villain. There to answer the deluded questions of MMA fans. Silva’s sons already knew the answer. The moment of respect at the end was beautiful. The faces on the sons told the dark side of the beauty. Hall beat the shit out of an old man.

Primetime is a technical mastermind. A rigid and calculated force of fast twitch opportunism. In that he is not unique. His flow of violence occasionally gives us flashes of what some might call artistry. A magic only worthy of those who have done the work, experienced the pain, the ugly eternity of endless hours of training. Then, almost by accident, they pull into existence something beautiful.

Hall has had a handful of these moments. Silva has had many. Silva (and Adesanya’s) moments have been more impactful. The tragedy that is the story of Hall’s potential is something beautiful. It is why we love the “GOATS”. Because of the tens, maybe (Highly unlikely) hundreds of Uriah Hall’s who have everything; except time. They lost time stuck in a moment. They needed time to learn how to handle certain situations. Time makes sweet love to a select few; but it fucks the shit out of rest of us.

I hope he can win a title. Maybe with Adesanya moving up. Hopefully Hall can finally get a candle lit dinner and five star hotel room at the end of his MMA career. Only time will tell.